This video is an excellent visual aid of showing how important reading with a child can be. As I was watching it I was immediately taken back to times when my parents would read aloud with me each night before I went to bed. Parents taking action by reading a short book or chapter each night with their child is an easy way to encourage them to read more. It's something I am grateful my parents did for me and I believe it is why I love to read for enjoyment as an adult.
Using the Smart Table for Collaboration
I absolutely love the idea of a Smart Table. I was fortunate enough to student teach in a classroom with a SmartBoard and the students absolutely loved getting the opportunity to use it. I can only imagine the possibilities and things they would be able to create with the Smart Table. One thing that they mentioned that is different from the SmartBoard I used was that it is multi-touch and multiple students would be able to collaborate on one assignment! Technology is constantly changing and moving forward for the benefit of our students. I would love to have a Smart Table in my future classroom!
Exploring Social Studies and Technology
I love the idea of being able to incorporate technology and social studies with the Smart Table. Social Studies is often one of the subjects that students get bored with, but integrating this new technology with social studies would be an excellent way to get students engaged. I loved how someone on the video mentioned that it's like digital play dough! Students could make all sorts of projects and discover new ways of learning through this technology.
Integrating Science and Literacy in Early Childhood
This video really stressed the importance of working with the parents and having literacy at school and at home. One of the first things that caught my attention in this video was when literacy was defined as listening, speaking, thinking, reading, and writing. Often times we only think of literacy as reading and writing and its a culmination of so many things. Informational texts in science can often be boring for many readers, but they provide us with the background knowledge and allow us to travel to an exotic location that we may not be able to do on our own.
Development of Literacy Strategies
I'm so grateful for the "Plain English Definition" in this presentation. I believe literacy development begins well before children are in school and starts at home. It develops through hearing and speaking and continues to develop as they begin to read and write. I immediately think to my niece that is only two, but carries on full conversations in full sentences. Her parents and grandparents read to her constantly and never spoke to her in "baby talk." Now she is also able to write the entire alphabet and her name. I believe if her family had not put such an emphasis on literacy at such a young age her literacy would not be as developed as it is.
Expository Text Structures
I've seen something very similar to this graphic organizer before and have shared it with my previous students. The cue word really helped them be able to identity the pattern in the text.
Article: Expository Text Structure - Moss
This article not only stressed the importance of text structures, but also told the reader how to teach them. My favorite part of the article was the section that described the difference between a summary and retelling. This is something many of my previous students have struggled with and this is a great and easy way to explain to students how to properly differentiate between the two. I also really like that the author gave a list of trade book ideas that could be used in the classroom.
Effects of Explicit Instruction on Reading Preferences
This paper was an action research project performed with
second grade students that explored the effects of explicit instruction on reading
preference. I enjoyed reading this article and enjoyed seeing an example of a
completed research assignment. I wasn’t surprised to learn that most classrooms
have more fiction texts than non-fiction texts. Students I have worked with in
the past typically like to read more non-fiction texts when we work or have
worked on it in class and it catches their attention. I’ve had numerous
students return from the library with non-fiction texts that relate to the
content we were learning about because they were so intrigued by the subject(s).
I believe these text help students to learn a wide variety of vocabulary and
challenge their reading skills.
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